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"Does happiness continue to increase with income, as some have found, or is there a threshold, as others have found? The answer is that there's a threshold for the least happy people, but for the happiest, happiness continues to increase." I found this to be a really fascinating study for a...

I know many folks have helped/taken over their elder parents' finances. I've been managing my parents investment since the late 80s, and my sister and I have been handling all my mom's money for the last 1/2 dozen years. The migration online greatly simplified many things. However, as website...

Really interesting article about Nobel Laurette Paul Samuelson and Warren Buffett. Paul Nobel Prize is for his efficient market theory. But he actually bought a lot of Berkshire Hathway stock and so while he advocated passive investing he was actually an active investor...

I think the Fed getting serious about raising interest rates. So I've decided that its time I convert my HELCO and Pledged asset variable loans which are currently at ~3.75% to a 15 year fixed. After doing a lot of searching I've narrowed it down to three companies. Penfed Quicken/Schwab...

I've been an owner Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway stock for 20 years and have been reading his annual report even before that. There is always more than few nuggets of wisdom in his annual letters. In page 21 of the letter he goes on to talk about some of the amazing productivity gains...

My sister is turning 65 in March and is signing up for Medicare. She is in great shape (eats very healthy, exercises religiously) She has a question about SS, which while I think I know the answer to I thought I'd double check with the board. Her husband is 71 and took SS at around age 65. I...

It is been a while since we've had this poll. If you have definite plans to change your status in the next year, e.g retire downsize and rent a place, answer the poll with the new status.

I think the Google Doodles are getting progressively better. I really liked today's in honor of Mother's Day.

I thought this article was good idea urging a Presidential Medal of Freedom for John Bogle. You can sign the petition here.

The PBS Newshour had a fun and fascinating story on the impact of gangman style video on stock prices. Plus the huge benefit of having a good looking CEO like Marissa Meyers or Elon Musk appear on CNBC. From now on I am going to evaluate a CEO hotness and dance moves before investing..

A friend of mine moved to the US many years ago from Canada and recently became a US citizen. Her 25 year old daughter still lives in BC, and she will be visiting for a couple of weeks. Her DD is like many 25 years old not good with money and has lots of credit card debt, but she is making...

Micheal Lewis had fun column today with his 8 things I wish for wall street

I thought I was doing pretty well the combined value of my 401K/IRAs moving past 1.5 million, despite only contributing for 15 years. Then came Gov. Romney with an IRA worth more than $100 million that he accumulated over a life time. But my hats is off to this entrepreneur. From the WSJ. I...

I decide to add to my position in ISM a couple of days ago. (For the new folks its inflation indexed bond issued by student loan giant Sallie Mae, that is/was quite popular on the board). Looking at chart over the last month, I decided to put in a limit order at $24.42 for 1,000 shares. There...

Last weeks This American Life had very interesting segment on the experience of a Fed regulator who was part of the team in charge of overseeing Goldman Sachs in the Spring of 2009. Her side of the story was that her fellow regulators were very reluctant to question GS or otherwise make waves...

I make a point of reading this every few years. It one of powerful piece of rhetoric, in the best sense of the word. IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to...

I was unable to click on any of the tabs your portfolio, investigate etc. I could use it fine for the basic setting 40 years 1Mil portfolio 40K withdrawal but couldn't make any other changes. I tried it using both firefox and chrome after a full reboot. :(

I learned an expensive lesson this week. Always read the fine print of any special tax break you get before the end of the year not after. I cheated myself out of $2,000 -$3,000 I always file an extension, because I generally don't get reports from the small companies I'm invested with before...

Over the last decade I've average between 50 and 150 trades a year. About 30ish are equity (include no commission ETFs) and the balance options. My working theory is that writing puts or calls reduces portfolio volatility with minimal loss of performance. It was gratifying meeting with a...

I just saw this and I thought this Google App was a fun and light hearted way of spicing up your photos. Adding celebrity to your family photos.. Although I am not fan of David Hasselhoff.. :D

All of you who have any type of Federal pension I think will now have an answer to why did it take so long to get my full pension paid? The short answer is because Federal pension are calculated and processed by hand with paper forms in an old limestone mine. They have been trying a failing...

Warren Buffett's Berkshire is my largest holding at ~8% of portfolio, so I read his shareholder letter and annual report pretty carefully. It gets a lot of coverage, I liked this Fortune article the best. Since I posted this in Fire and Money, instead of the stock forum, I won't discuss much...

Bill Gross's newsletter aren't typically as folksy as Warren Buffett's, but this one with pictures of pigs in stockades is pretty close. Of particular interest was his description of how important credit is in determining asset prices. Emphasis his. FYI, PIMCO slightly increased their...

I mocked the state of Illinois in the past for their silly Python Pension. However this plan to team up with The Onion to produce a series of satirical ads to convince young invincible to buy Health Insurance seems like a good idea. More here

Today's WSJ has fascinating article on retirement income which high lights one of my pet peeves the awful archaic state of government data collection. Since it is behind the WSJ pay wall I'll quote extensively from it and provide some commentary.. The rest of the article discuss other...